The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

in Nature but that (as her silly Phrase is) no one
can say Black is her Eye. She has no Secrets,
forsooth, which should make her afraid to speak
her Mind, and therefore she is impertinently Blunt
to all her Acquaintance, and unseasonably Imperious
to all her Family. Dear Sir, be pleased to put
such Books in our Hands, as may make our Virtue
more inward, and convince some of us that in a Mind
truly virtuous the Scorn of Vice is always accompanied
with the Pity of it. This and other things are
impatiently expected from you by our whole Sex;
among the rest by,

SIR,

Your most humble Servant,’

B.

* * * *
*

No. 80. Friday, June 1, 1711.
Steele.

‘Coelum
non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.’

Hor.

In the Year 1688, and on the same Day of that Year,
were born in Cheapside, London, two Females
of exquisite Feature and Shape; the one we shall call
Brunetta, the other Phillis. A close
Intimacy between their Parents made each of them the
first Acquaintance the other knew in the World:
They played, dressed Babies, acted Visitings, learned
to Dance and make Curtesies, together. They were
inseparable Companions in all the little Entertainments
their tender Years were capable of: Which innocent
Happiness continued till the Beginning of their fifteenth
Year, when it happened that Mrs. Phillis had
an Head-dress on which became her so very well, that
instead of being beheld any more with Pleasure for
their Amity to each other, the Eyes of the Neighbourhood
were turned to remark them with Comparison of their
Beauty. They now no longer enjoyed the Ease of
Mind and pleasing Indolence in which they were formerly
happy, but all their Words and Actions were misinterpreted
by each other, and every Excellence in their Speech
and Behaviour was looked upon as an Act of Emulation
to surpass the other. These Beginnings of Disinclination
soon improved into a Formality of Behaviour; a general
Coldness, and by natural Steps into an irreconcilable
Hatred.

These two Rivals for the Reputation of Beauty, were
in their Stature, Countenance and Mien so very much
alike, that if you were speaking of them in their
Absence, the Words in which you described the one must
give you an Idea of the other. They were hardly
distinguishable, you would think, when they were apart,
tho’ extremely different when together.
What made their Enmity the more entertaining to all
the rest of their Sex was, that in Detraction from
each other neither could fall upon Terms which did
not hit herself as much as her Adversary. Their
Nights grew restless with Meditation of new Dresses
to outvie each other, and inventing new Devices to
recal Admirers, who observed the Charms of the one
rather than those of the other on the last Meeting.